Original Apple 1 Computer Sells for $374,500 in Auction

An original Apple computer sold for $374,500 at a rare auction this morning, more than double the expected price.

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A fully functioning Apple I computer sold for $374,000 at a Sotheby’s auction in New York on Friday.

On the face of it, the slim, green board of circuity and components doesn’t look impressive by modern-day standards. But the fully functional motherboard was built by Apple’s legendary co-founders, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and it’s the brains of what became the first ready-made personal computer, the Apple 1, in 1976.

The package also includes a video terminal, keyboard and operation manuals.

As the auction house Sotheby’s notes, fewer than 50 Apple 1 computers are believed to exist today, with only six in working condition including this one. Sotheby’s didn’t disclose who sold the computer at Friday’s auction, but did say the owner will help assemble the computer to get it up and running.

A Sotheby’s spokesman said two bidders slugged it out — the winner by phone, the other through an automatic bidding process. The buyer wishes to remain anonymous.

Sotheby’s officials had expected the Apple 1 to sell for $120,000 to $180,000. Another one sold at a 2010 auction in London for $212,267. The sticker price in 1976 for the Apple 1: $666.66.

Here’s the description in the Sotheby’s catalogue about the Apple 1:

When Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs presented the Apple 1 Computer to the Homebrew Computer Club in 1976, it was dismissed by everyone but Paul Terrell, the owner of a chain of stores called Byte Shop. Terrell ordered 50 computers for $500 a piece, insisting that the circuit boards come fully assembled rather than as DIY kits similar to the Altair, and Jobs and Woz managed to produce the requisite computers in 30 days. They continued production, immediately creating 50 additional Apple 1′s[sic] to sell to friends and an additional 100 to sell through vendors, at a retail price of $666.66, a number that garnered complaints among conservative Christians, but provided a lucrative 33% markup.

As the first ready-made personal computer, the Apple 1 signaled a new age in which computing became accessible to the masses. The interface of circuitry and software that Woz created enabled users to type letters with “a human-typable keyboard instead of a stupid, cryptic front panel with a bunch of lights and switches,” as he explained to the Homebrew Computer Club. Even so, it was sold without a keyboard, monitor, case, or power supply. An exceptionally rare, working example with original Apple cassette interface, operation manuals and a rare BASIC Users’ Manual. It is thought that fewer than 50 Apple 1 Computers survive, with only 6 known to be in working condition.